


Writing Prompts

by blueroanmare



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 09:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20504513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueroanmare/pseuds/blueroanmare
Summary: Just a few writing prompts that I do sometimes and feel worthy enough to share :)





	1. Chapter 1

Prompt: Nobody at the funeral was sure what killed him but they all had theories.

Everyone looked at the man lying so quietly in his eternal bed. Some secretly thought having an open casket was in poor taste, but Death had been kind in its visitation. He looked more peaceful than he had in life. A heart attack, the coroner had said. An attack that had taken him as he stood in his high rise office, working late one night. At least, that is what they were told.

_Poor man,_ his wife thought. _He always worked so hard. I told him he was too stressed out. He should have taken more time to be home with me. But it was case after case that he insisted on taking. I should have put my foot down more, and made him come home. I should have been happy with the simpler things in life. If I had been low maintenance, he'd have been happier. I killed him with worrying that he could provide for me. Poor man!_

His office rival had quite different ideas. _If only she knew what he was doing. Does she think that he was working late hours all the time? He was sparking that co-worker of his… he probably overexerted himself, and no one wants to say that she fucked him to death. Should have been in bed with his own wife. But now that he's gone, that big project goes to me, and I'll make more money out of it._

His sister sighed, _My poor brother. It hadn't been easy with his home life. He never wanted children. And with the twins… it was too much for him. And I should have helped more. Those children ran him to death. Boarding school, I said. They should have gone to boarding school._

A new person wandered to the casket and crossed himself as he looked on the still body. _He was always a clumsy fellow. I always said his two left feet were going to be the death of him. Heart attack indeed. I'm sure he only tripped over his stupid chair like he did every week for twenty years. I told him to pad that desk. But no, I'm sure he cracked his own fool head on it. Clumsy._

A young woman glanced at the casket with a huff. _I don't know why I was dragged here. I know exactly what killed him. It was me. I wanted money from him and it was the shock of his life to find out I was his love child. He thought he had it perfectly good. A wife. Two children. A nice pretty house. All just a fantasy to him. Then here I am… to drag his sins in the mud. He should have known about me. So he killed himself to rid him of the shame. Well, I hope the devil gives him a warm welcome._

His father looked down on him with a shake of his head. _A father should not lose a child. But that son of mine never listened to me. I always told him he would be the death of me. But no. He was the death of himself. Those drinking binges… the pills. Heavens, the pills. I always tried to tell him to quit. To come and talk to me. I wish he had. Those pills killed him, for sure._

A sturdy man hung back from the crowd. It appeared that no one knew him, but he had great respect for the man in the casket. _Gosh, canna' believe the guy is deed. Wha' has th' world come to? Sommat dreadful sure. It was dem horses, sure. Dem horses doin' poorly, see. De don't make 'em lak de used to. De not run so fast. He used ta make a pile of moony, he did. An' now.. nudding. And sure, he ain't tell his wifey. She keel him. Mebby she did. Mebby he done hisself in. Dunno what ta do about dat bay mare now he were gonna buy. She purty, sure. He keel hisself over the debts. Mebby I buy horse in his honour? Yah, dink I will do dat, sure._

His cousin wiped her tears. _How awful that he's dead! I told him to look after his health. So many terrible things can happen when one does not properly care for oneself. I told him to always change his socks or he'll get gangrene. Last time I saw him he seemed awful pale to me. Cancer, for sure. He was dying before my eyes. Or was it his liver? My friend's uncle had problems with his liver all his life. It must have been that. Didn't he look like his jaw was hurting the last time? Of course, it was a tooth infection that migrated to his brain. A heart attack the doctor said? No, no, no. Doctors don't know a thing. I should know. I've seen too many of them, myself. No, it was necrosis of something. What does necrosis mean again? Well, nevermind. He looks handsome enough. But you never know what's inside do you? Oh! It must be worms! That's what killed him! _She backed away hastily and immediately got a Lysol wipe and patted herself down desperately.

At last the unfortunate man was buried, the mourners scattered, each to their homes. The only one left standing at the graveside was a shadowy man. He stared down at the freshly turned earth. _Well. No matter how this man died… he's coming with me. I do believe I'll toss him with Tantalus. Seems worthy enough. Or didn't Persephone say she wanted a new cover for her footstool? Seems about the right size. _With that, the shadowy man vanished without a trace that anyone had ever been there.


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: You look up one day to see a glow from the clouds in the sky before you. It's not sunlight. It's not lighting. The clouds are actually on fire.

Something was different this morning as I opened my eyes. The room was bathed in a reddish hue, and I sat up in confusion. It was long past sunrise, so what was the source of this red light? Swinging my legs over the bed, I padded across the floor in bare feet, ignoring the fact that the very floor is warmer than usual. As I roll up the blinds, I stare at the scene before me.

Redness paints the sky in a glowing inferno. _Is it the end of the world? What is going on?_ I opened my window, and slammed it shut again the next moment. It was hot… too hot for this time of year. The clouds are on fire, swirling and twisting in the once blue sky. But I realize at once that it's not just the clouds. I can see no sun in the sky, no patches of blue, nothing but an inferno blazing above.

_The sky was on fire_.

I quickly dressed in a light tank and jeans, switching the top out after a thought that perhaps I might need more protection, as in sleeves. My t shirt stuck to my body as I enter the kitchen. Nothing untowards here other than the white walls glowing unnaturally pink in the strange light. The power seemed to be functioning, that's a positive. I saw my husband standing at the window, equally mesmerized by what was happening. Coming up beside him, I tapped him to get his attention and sign, _What do you think it is?_

He turned to me, worry written across his face as his hands wave, _I don't know. I can't get internet._

That is a problem. _What about the tv?_

Now he smiled at me. _Now that's why I married you. You're the smarter one of us_. Quickly he turned on the television and we sat down on the couch together. Now we know exactly what is happening. Somehow - the scientists say some kind of super meteor shower - the Van Allen Belts that surround our blue planet have caught on fire. That explained why it was warmer. My eyes read the captions quick as lightning, annoyed at times with the real time captioning, for often there were mistakes made, or it wasn't catching up to people's lips.

_We have to get out of here,_ my husband signed to me. _Take what we can and go underground._

I turned in alarm to him, flapping my hands anxiously, _Where underground? We don't have bunkers or storm shelters._

_You saw what the newsman said. The planet has three weeks before it gets too hot for life on the surface. Do you think the Van Allen Belts will really burn out at 173 degrees? Then what? _He signed reasonably.

Tears misted my eyes as I clutched Layla, my German Shepherd to me. She was panting heavily and I could feel her throat making a vibration. Poor girl was probably whining in fear. _Sit,_ I motioned to her, and she did, though she pressed her body into mine. _I guess you're right. But just where do we go? Do you think we are going to be evacuated?_

Shrugging, he got up and packed a few things upstairs, while I threw together food that would keep a while, plus some for Layla. There was no way in hell that I was leaving her behind. There was a brief argument between my husband and me about that, but in the end, he admitted he didn't want to leave her either. Besides, she was our ears for us.

We shut our front door behind us and took one good look at the house. Would we ever see it again? I stumbled, unable to see for the tears blinding me once again, but he grabbed my arm, guing me down the tret. People rushed here and there, panicking, looking at the sky and some were screaming, I could tell. Their mouths were open and they flapped hands or wrung them, pointing to the burning sky then jabbering away too fast to lip read.

I had hoped for some military guidance but our town was small. From what I can gather, people were heading to the churches, schools or boarding up their own houses to stay in them. My husband shooed me into the car and we started driving. I don't know where he was going, and at the moment, I didn't particularly care.

It seemed he had the right idea and got out before the mass tangle of cars and trucks. I saw wild animals fleeing in terror,and in fact we nearly hit a large stag bounding across the road. Layla barked at it, but otherwise, she was quiet. And everywhere, the wild red orange burning in the sky with no end in sight. And would be no end ever, if the scientists were wrong. We'd be baked alive unless we found some place to go.

Gasping when my husband suddenly veered off the road, I turned to look at him. He signed quickly, _Sorry. I don't think we should take roads. I have an idea._

Nodding, my focus was on my breathing, trying not to panic for Layla's and my husband's sake. He needed to drive. I needed to stay calm. We had three weeks apparently. Okay. Three weeks to do what? Find shelter. Find others. Find food. My brain raced a million miles an hour as I stared out at the now bleak landscape. Seeing my husband glance over to me, I reassured him, _I'm fine. Just thinking. What temperature do you think the trees will catch fire?_

_No idea. Let's not think of that now._

Layla sat up in the backseat and started barking. I wondered what she saw or heard and looked at whatever she was looking at. Then I saw a group of people ahead and raised my eyebrows at my husband. He slowed down and pulled up to a stop. _Wait here._

I watched as he approached the people and was relieved when they started signing rapidly to each other. Good. Maybe now we can figure out what the hell is going on here. Well, we know what. But what can we DO about it?

Eventually he motioned to me, and I grabbed Layla, being sure she was on her leash and came to him, _I heard about this group. They have a bunker out here. I was… I'm afraid… rude to them and made fun of their idea. But I've said sorry, and they have room for us._

Room for us? I glanced around and saw it was a mere dozen or so people, but still, how big was the bunker? _Are you sure? And Layla too?_

The closest man grasped my hand before pulling away to say, _Yes, we do. We've been texting some others but we haven't heard from them yet. But we had room for extras anyways. Come. You'll be safe with us. And your cute dog too._

We were ushered into the bunker, and Layla had a hard time with the closeness of so many strangers. But I liked it somehow. We all spoke sign. There were all kinds of visual alerts. Everything that we could use. We'd be safe here, he was right. The rest of the world, we didn't know about, but that was a worry we'd get to another day.

* * *

_A blinding light settled over the wasteland ground. The creature looked at his friend. _There are humanoids alive in a metal container in the ground. _The other nodded, and a beam cut apart the earth and beamed up the strange container into the hold with hardly a jar. Expertly done. The creature made sure he and the others were armed as they cut open the lock and opened the bunker._

_Fourteen humans stared at them with terror in their eyes, but the creature instantly raised his weathered hands and tried to sign slowly. _You. Are. Safe. We. Save. You.

_Confusion was on all the human faces, then a woman stepped forward curiously. A large brown and white quadruped jumped in front of her and bared rather sharp teeth at them, but when the creature reached a hand forward, the small beast seemed satisfied. Strangely enough, the appendage at the back of the beast waved back and forth. Seeing this, the woman came closer, more confidently. She slowly raised her hands. _You can understand us?

_The creature smiled and nodded. _Yes.

_The rest of the humans were relieved and slowly emerged out of the bunker, most of them their hands flapping to each other. The creatures were pleased that they could understand them, though some of the dialect was tricky at times. The woman turned to the first one and asked, _What happened to the others?

Many died. Your planet has burned. There are some alive, but those we tried to rescue couldn't speak. They made strange faces. They did not use their hands. We couldn't understand.

_She seemed to think about this before saying,_ Can you hear?

The creature stared and asked his own question, _What is hear? _He turned his earless head to the others, shrugged and said, _We will save your race. You are the mothers and fathers of future Earthlings. Come. We will show you worlds, where no man has gone before._


End file.
